The Odes of Horace
The Odes of Horace
The Odes of Horace rey Translated ranslated by Je= rey
H. Kaimowitz
Introduction by Ronnie Ancona
The Johns Hopkins University Press Baltimore
© 2008 The Johns Hopkins University Press All rights reserved. Published 2008 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 The Johns Hopkins University Press 2715 North Charles Street Baltimore, Maryland 21218-4363 www.press.jhu.edu Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Horace. [Carmina. English] The odes of Horace / translated by Je= rey H. Kaimowitz ; introduction by Ronnie Ancona. p. cm. ISBN-13: 978-0-8018-8995-0 (hardcover : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-8018-8995-2 (hardcover : alk. paper) ISBN-13: 978-0-8018-8996-7 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-8018-8996-0 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Horace—Translations into English. 2. Laudatory poetry, Latin—Translations into English. 3. Verse satire, Latin— Translations into English. 4. Rome—Poetry. I. Kaimowitz, Je= rey H. II. Title. PA6395.K35 2008 874.01—dc22 2008007275 A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library. Special discounts are available for bulk purchases of this book. For more information, please contact Special Sales at 410-516-6936 or
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Contents
Preface vii Translator’s Note ix Introduction, by Ronnie Ancona xvii The Odes of Horace
Book I 3 Book II 55 Book III 89 Book IV 143
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Preface
Still another translation of Horace’s Odes? Yes, because in this metrical translation I hope to have brought something new to the ever quixotic challenge of trying to render Horace’s inimitable lyric poems in English. All the versions are o= ered in verse schemes reminiscent of Horace’s meters but firmly based on English prosody; I comment on metrics at greater length in the Translator’s Note. My goal has been literary. The translations are intended as poems in their own right. Though I have worked to keep as close to the original as possible, literary values, including metrical discipline, lead to results that are not always literal. For example, references are sometimes modified for the sake of more immediate clarity and comprehension and are occasionally omitted entirely, if I feel this can be done without sacrificing the overall meaning and movement of the poem. The basic Latin text I have employed is the fifth edition of Horace’s works, edited by F. Klingner and published by Teubner. A list of points in the Odes where I have used readings other than those of Klingner appears at the end of the Translator’s Note. To facilitate comprehension and accessibility, I have annotated the translation throughout, explaining various references. The notes are generally not intended to be interpretative; the textual choices and the translation itself seem interpretation enough. For the sake of convenience, annotation for a name or topic that appears more than once is usually repeated or provided with a cross reference. There are many whose help I have enjoyed during the genesis of this translation. The late Hugh Ogden and the late Millie Silvestri were very supportive in the early stages of the project. I also appreciate the encouragement I received from the editors of Classical World, the Formalist, and Connecticut Review by their publication of versions of the translations in their journals. Jayne Gaebel and Robert Gaebel each carefully read and commented on the completed translation, and Robert Palter similarly read and commented on the first two books, and for this I owe all three of them a great debt. In addition, the comments of the Johns Hopkins Press’s outside reader were extremely helpful. I also want to thank Michael Lonegro, acquisitions editor for humanities and ancient studies at the Johns Hopkins University Press, for championing this translation; Ronnie Ancona, for her fine introduction, which so beautifully contextualizes and intro-
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PREFACE
duces Horace and his poetry; and Barbara Lamb, for her expert copyediting. Most of all, I am grateful to my wonderful wife, Llyn, with whom I have shared over the years many of the drafts of the poems and whose encouragement, patience, and hardheaded feedback have been of inestimable help.
Reading the Odes
The Odes of Horace present a complex array of subjects and influences. The varied themes include a great deal about the enjoyment of life and awareness of its evanescence, friendship, amorous love and hate, patriotic reflections on the Roman state, mythology, the beauty and simplicity of country life, the poetic vocation, and all this through the lens of Horace’s often bemused but sympathetic eye. There is also the panoply of Greek authors who influenced Horace’s writing, explicitly and implicitly, including his innovations in metrics, unique in its range and extent in Roman poetry. Thus he makes frequent mention of Aeolic poetry, song native to the island of Lesbos, whose two great exponents were Alcaeus and Sappho. He also refers to the delicate poetry of Anacreon of Teos and to the powerful verse of the great choral poet Pindar of Thebes, whose influence is crucial in the complex architecture of many of Horace’s poems. At the same time, the influence of the themes and sophisticated pose of Hellenistic Greek poetry, notably the epigram, though not acknowledged explicitly, is evident in many of the Odes, as well as the influence of Hellenistic philosophy, notably Epicureanism and Stoicism. Though striking out on a new departure for Roman poetry, Horace’s work also reflects the influence of distinguished Latin writers who were his predecessors and contemporaries—writers like Ennius, Catullus, Lucretius, Vergil, and the writers of Roman elegy. One of the most attractive and striking characteristics of Horace’s poetry is his use of language. Horace’s ideals in writing are evident in the verse itself, but we are also fortunate to have his explicit statement of what he valued in his art, particularly with regard to diction and word placement, in his literary epistles, especially the last of the series, Epistle II.3, The Art of Poetry. Here are two revealing passages:
1. The translation is my own; the text follows D. R. Shackleton Bailey’s edition (Stuttgart: Teubner, 1985), but without emending potenter (according to his talents) to pudenter (with a proper sense of restraint) in line 40; see the commentary of Niall Rudd in Horace Epistles, Book II, and Epistle to the Pisones (‘Ars Poetica’ ) (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), 155–56.
